- In general, the punishments given by J. Ps were mainly fines, whipping or a spell in the pillory or stocks. However, in the Quarter Sessions, they could impose the death penalty.
- The equivalent of JPs in the towns were the aldermen and the mayor.
- They could sentence people to the pillory or the stocks, or to a whipping. Instead of constables, towns relied on a watchman or a bellman. Their patrols were supposed to deter criminals from committing crime.
Manor courts and church courts
- The old manor and church courts also dealt with some cases of minor crime.
- The church courts usually dealt with people who had been drunk and disorderly, particularly argumentative, or had broken some traditional customs about sexual behaviour.
6. Women, witch-hunts and the law
- Women continued to suffer from unequal treatment in many respects during the period 1450 - 1750.
- In the period 1450 - 1750 there was the great clash between the Catholic and Protestant Churches, which brought religion to the fore.
- Tensions were also heightened by the Civil War which broke out in 1642.
- Once these religious and political conflicts had died down, the witchcraft craze subsided almost as quickly as it had arisen.
Why did witchcraft cases become so much more common?
Both Catholic and Protestant rulers and church leaders called for action against suspected witches.
- The economic problems of this period caused several periods of poverty for many people, and the gap between rich and poor tended to widen during this period.
- Many turned to magic and charms as a way of trying to improve their luck; many blamed bad luck on evil spirits and the spells of witches.
The role of the state
- From medieval times to the sixteenth century, witchcraft was rarely prosecuted - only about 15 women were executed for witchcraft in this period.
- However, during the period 1530 - 1650, there were many more trials - especially in the 1560s and the 1640s.
- In 1542, Henry VIII passed an act which made witchcraft a capital offence; under Mary I, an act in 1563 set punishments for minor and major witchcraft.
- In 1604, a law under James I consolidated all witchcraft laws. Like the Tudors, he also saw the secrecy surrounding witchcraft as allowing opportunities for traitors to get together.
Women and witchcraft
- Over 90% of those accused of witchcraft during the period 1450 - 1750 were women - usually old women who lived on their own (they would be more likely to know about the old religion).
- The Puritans in particular tended to see women as temptresses, and more likely to be persuaded to do the Devil’s work.
- Once a woman had been accused of witchcraft, the authorities would look for ‘evidence’.
- At certain times during this period, whole communities seemed gripped by mass hysteria.
- This was especially true of East Anglia, where Matthew Hopkins helped create a great panic over witches. Hopkins became known as ‘The Witch-finder General’.
- At the same time, the pace of economic and social change began to slow down, and the hysteria subsided.
- In the period 1563 - 1700, about 3000 women in England were officially tried for witchcraft; of these, about 400 were hanged, while many more died in prison.
Why did witchcraft trials decline after the seventeenth century?
- In England, witchcraft continued to be a crime into the eighteenth century: the last official trial was in 1712, but the last execution for this offence was in 1682.
- In 1736, all laws concerning witchcraft were abolished, mainly as the result of changing attitudes which were associated with the Enlightenment.
Women and the common law
- Women were not supposed to trade or own property; on marriage, all they possessed became the legal property of their husbands.
- They couldn’t divorce and, if their husbands divorced them, they had no legal right to custody of the children.
- Women were also excluded from professions such as medicine, parliament and the church, and were not allowed to go to university.
- Women who murdered their husbands were burned rather than hanged, as this was seen as petty treason against their lord.
- The laws on inheritance were altered in the seventeenth century, to allow all heirs - including women - to receive an income from the estate of a dead husband or father.
Women and crime
- According to the records, women made up about 15- 20% of all those accused of crimes during this period - this compares to a current figure of about 10%.
- Most female crime seems to have been petty theft on a small scale, such as pick-pocketing and shoplifting.
- Women were often easier targets for theft, robbery and murder.
- Women also found it difficult to get justice, as all the legal officials were men.
INDUSTRIAL BRITAIN, 1750 - 1900
1. Industrialisation and crime
Crime and statistics
- According to local crime statistics (statistics were not collected nationally until 1805) crime increased gradually from 1750 to about 1815 and the end of the Napoleonic Wars, then rose dramatically from then until about 1840, when there was gradual decline.
- New laws also automatically increased crime statistics as, before these laws, such behaviour hadn’t been illegal.
- Industrialisation also brought new crimes - such as stealing water from the standpipes placed in some streets in the industrial towns.
- Also, crime was increasingly reported and recorded, whereas in the past many petty criminals were simply given a beating.
- Investors frequently lost their money to embezzlers and crooked business people.
- The great increase in wealth also increased the opportunities for bribery and corruption amongst those in the upper ranks of society
2. Causes of crime - changing views
Was there a link between poverty and crime?
- Poverty in the period 1750 -1900 was generally widespread, but increased greatly during times of economic and trade difficulties, known as depressions or recessions.
- Overall, statistics of recorded crime in the first half of the nineteenth century do show large increases at times when poverty and distress were at their highest levels, and people convicted of theft frequently claimed poverty as the reason for their crime.
- According to statistics, there would appear to have been increases in crime during times of economic distress and poverty; particularly affected at such times were women and married men.
Changing attitudes
- Contemporaries in Industrial Britain were more ready to blame alcohol as the cause of the increase in crime.
- Others argued in favour of a vicious circle, in which people turned to crime in order to pay for alcohol.
- Public houses were also seen as places where criminals met, and were able to recruit new members to the ‘criminal classes’.
Family life
- Some contemporaries and later historians saw rapid industrialisation and urbanisation as destroying the closeness of family life, and so making crime more likely and easier to commit.
- The long hours of factory work, frequently involving father and mother, and older children, meant young children were often unsupervised.
- Out on the streets all day (and especially night when parents spent evenings in the many pubs), it was easy for many to drift into crime.
The ‘criminal class’
- The increase in crime led many of the middle classes to believe the industrial towns were the home of a ‘criminal class’.
- The general belief was that most of the poorer classes were potential criminals. Fears of such a criminal underclass were heightened by evidence that criminals lacked religious knowledge and values, and had quite different moral standards.
- Some contemporary ‘experts’ went so far as to claim there was a definite ‘criminal type’, which could be identified by certain physical characteristics, such as skull-shape, brain weight, stocky build and closeness of eyes.
Rookeries
- These were the areas of poorest housing, with narrow streets and alleyways, with interconnected cellars and lodging houses - these ‘rookeries’ provided ideal hideaways.
- Middle-class writers were particularly concerned about the number of young people apparently living a life of crime in these rookeries.
- The police, though, found the concentration of criminals in such small areas actually made their job of law enforcement easier.
3. Pickpockets, ‘garrotters’ and murderers
- During this period, around 75% of all recorded crime were various forms of petty theft - as it had been in previous periods. Violent crimes in general only made up about 10% of recorded crimes, with murder being relatively rare.
- The crime of picking pockets had been in existence long before 1750. Rookeries were often the home of organised gangs of pickpockets.
- Mainly, they stole purses and pocket handkerchiefs - especially the latter, as they were easy to steal.
- The garrotting and robbery of Hugh Pilkington, M.P, in 1862, was given wide coverage in the press.
- The press reports created a ‘moral panic’ about what was an unusual and minority form of crime.
- Yet the number of garrottings seems to have relatively small. The gradual introduction of gas street-lighting made such street robberies more difficult.
- With the development of national newspapers, local murders were reported all over the country. As a result, people in the nineteenth century began to think murder was on the increase.
- Also, improvements in crime detection and policing meant more murderers were caught and brought to trial - and the newspapers reported these trials in great detail.
- Yet, despite these fears, the level of murders actually went slowly down. The same was true in general of other violent street crimes.
After about 1850, crime rates - and the great fear about crime - began to decline.
4. Rioters and protesters
- As long as riots did not threaten the government, governments in the second half of the eighteenth century often treated participants quite leniently. There were real causes of economic distress and hardship.
- One problem was that still only the wealthiest people (as in the past) had the right to vote and so make laws.
- The only way ordinary people could hope to change things was by trying to persuade the ruling classes to change things for them.
- They could either do this peacefully - via meetings, petitions, letters, etc - or violently, with attacks on property or people, arson or riots.
- But strikes - and even trade unions - were illegal for much of this period, hence opportunities for peaceful protest were limited.
Government repression
- Peaceful protests and demonstrations by the London Corresponding Society in the mid-1790s led to the passing of several acts - the Treasonable Practices Act; the Seditious Meetings Act; and, in 1799 - 1800, the Corresponding Act and the Combination Acts.
- In 1819, following protests and riots in 1816 and 1817, the Six Acts gave magistrates wide powers, including to search houses, ban meetings and demonstrations, and to stop trial by jury.
5. Law enforcement and the ‘Bloody Code’
- During the period 1450 -1750, the ‘Bloody Code’ had meant you could be hanged for over 200 different offences, ranging from murder to robbery, burglary and pickpocketting.
- Over 90% of those hanged were under 21 - even children as young as 10 were hanged. - although before 1750, only about 40% of those condemned to death were actually hanged.
- But juries became increasingly reluctant to impose the death penalty for some of the petty crimes.
- The percentage of those found guilty of a capital offence dropped to about 10% in the early nineteenth century - those who were not executed were usually transported.
- It was clear to some reformers at least that public hangings were not having the intended effect of deterrence.
- Parliament began to reduce the number of hanging offences, and instead to increase the number of law enforcement officers.
- Detection rather than public execution became the deterrent.
Changing attitudes
- In the 1820s, Sir Samuel Romilly argued that the Bloody Code was too harsh.
- Jeremy Bentham, pointed out that the present system was inefficient
- In all, 180 death penalty offences were abolished, and judges were allowed to decide on whether or not to apply the death sentence for most of the others.
- By 1837, hanging was normally only used for murder or treason - after the 1860s, it was only used for these offences.
- In the first half of the eighteenth century, laws against poaching (such as the Waltham Black Act of 1723) were harsh, but had generally not been very strictly enforced.
- But this altered after 1750 when many poachers began to use guns.
- An Act of 1770 allowed poachers to be sent to prison for six months; in 1803, another act said those who carried guns and resisted arrest could be hanged.
- In 1816, poachers could be transported to Australia for 14 years.
- Between 1750 and 1820, more poachers were hanged than before 1750.
The death penalty
- In 1752, the Murder Act instructed judges to include dissection after death as part of the punishment - this was intended to make hanging even more of a deterrent.
- In 1868, it was finally decided that public hanging should be ended, and be replaced by hanging behind prison walls.
Alternatives to hanging
- The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw an increase in the use of imprisonment in Houses of Correction.
- By the early nineteenth century, imprisonment had become the most common form of punishment for those found guilty of a criminal offence.
- Older punishments - such as whipping or branding - were gradually dropped in this period.
- Transportation had in fact first been used in 1654 and had continued during the rest of the seventeenth century.
- Before 1750, transportation had been used to send criminals who had been reprieved from a death sentence to work on plantations in North America and the West Indies.
- In 1718, parliament had passed a law to make transportation a more common punishment. By the late 1760s, it had reached a high level.
- From 1787, however, an alternative destination was available - this was Botany Bay in Australia.
- Transportation meant judges did not have to impose the death penalty for trivial offences.
- But the families of transported convicts were often left without sufficient income.
- Transportation was greatly reduced from the 1840s, and finally stopped by 1870.
Punishment for minor offences
- Fines could often not be paid by poor people - so they usually ended up suffering other punishments such as whipping, the stocks or the pillory.
- For the rich, however, fines were often a way of getting away with crime, including some of the more serious ones - though murder and treason were excluded.
- Mutilation was sometimes added as an extra punishment, such as cutting off an ear, or slicing off the lips or tongue.
6. Reform of policing
- Before the nineteenth century, law enforcement had continued to be based on the old system of local ‘policing’.
- This depended on Justices of the Peace (JPs), appointed by the Crown from 1361 onwards. These were helped by part-time constables (from Norman times) and watchmen (after the Statute of Winchester, 1285) - based on the old Anglo-Saxon system where everyone was supposed to serve as one for a year.
- In the late seventeenth century, Charles II had passed some laws on their operation - since then, they had often been known as ‘Charleys’.
The Fieldings and the start of change
- In 1748, Henry took on the paid post of London’s main magistrate at Bow Street. According to him, only six of his 80 constables were any good
- He also published the ‘Covent Garden Journal’ to help people bring prosecutions, by printing information about crimes and criminals.
- In 1754, Sir John took over and built on Henry’s work. In particular, Bow Street soon had a growing nucleus of efficient, trained and paid constables.
- In 1763, he advised dividing London up into six areas, each with a police station and its own paid patrols on the Bow Street Runner model.
- In 1792 London was divided into seven police districts, with three magistrates and six paid constables each.
- In 1772-3, he got the government to give him £400 to publish ‘Hue and Cry’ a news-sheet that contained information about all crimes and convicted criminals, passed on by JPs and gaolers across the country.
Later changes
- In 1798 the Thames River Police was set up.
- By 1800, there were 68 Bow Street Runners and in 1805, 54 men (known as ‘Robin Redbreasts’ because of their red waistcoats) were employed to patrol the main roads, armed with pistols, cutlasses and truncheons.
- By 1829, London’s population had grown to 1.5 million, yet there were only 450 constables and 4000 watchmen. Most areas were dependent on the army or the local yeomanry or militia - and on spies and informers - to keep the peace.
The Metropolitan Police Act, 1829
- Robert Peel became Home Secretary in 1822. The Act set up a Metropolitan Police Force of 3200 to cover an area extending from the centre of London on a seven-mile radius.
- There were 17 divisions, each with four inspectors and 144 constables. They soon came to be known as ‘Bobbies’ or ‘Peelers’. They were unarmed except for truncheons - this was supposed to make them as unlike the army as possible.
- These policemen were under the control of two Commissioners based at Scotland Yard, who had to report directly to the Home Secretary.
- There was much opposition to this new force - in particular, this was due to the fear that an undemocratic government could use such a force like another army, to prevent opposition and control the people.
How successful was the 1829 Act?
- At first, there were many problems - most of the early recruits were unsuitable and were soon sacked or resigned.
- Many people - rich and poor alike - hated them. London JPs hated the fact that the police were not under their control.
- Many people came to appreciate the fact that the responsibility for bringing prosecutions in the courts was passed to the police.
The rest of the country
- Peel’s reforms only applied to London - reforms elsewhere had to wait until the 1830s.
- The Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, gave the borough councils the power to set up their own police forces, under the control of a Watch Committee - but they were not forced to do so.
- The 1839 Rural Constabulary (County Police) Act allowed the 54 counties the same powers as the boroughs, to set up their own police forces, if they wished, under the control of local magistrates.
- By the 1850s only 36 out of the 54 counties had set up their own police forces.
- In rural areas, many objected to the cost, while 25% of rural police were employed privately by rich people just to protect their own property.
- In 1856, the County Borough Police Act made it compulsory for all counties and boroughs to have a police force. In all, there were 239 separate police forces.
- Three national Inspectors of Police were appointed to judge the efficiency of local police forces.
- A Detective Department for the Metropolitan police was set up in 1842.
- In 1869, the National Criminal Record was set up. However, even the separate London police areas kept their own records.
- In 1877, a Criminal Investigations Department (CID) was set up with 200 detectives - this was increased to 800 in 1883.
- In 1883, the Special (Irish) Branch was set up to deal with Irish Nationalist terrorists known as the Fenians.
6. The reform of prisons
John Howard
- In 1773, he was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire. He was shocked by the crowded and unsanitary conditions.
- He recommended more space, better food, paid gaolers (instead of the existing practice where prisoners paid fees to the gaolers), and the separation of prisoners according to type and gender.
Sir George Paul
- In 1780, he became High Sheriff of Gloucestershire and was in total agreement with Howard’s findings and recommendations.
- He was allowed to build a new gaol for Gloucester by the 1785 Gloucestershire Act.
- This new prison had many improved features, including better cells and the separation of male and female prisoners. Food was improved, and prisoners were not kept in irons.
- These two prisons became the model for others. As the number of death sentences handed down by the courts decreased, prisons increasingly became places of punishment.
- During the late 1770s, the pressure on prison space increased and, from 1776, disused warships moored in naval dockyards were used. Conditions in these ‘hulks’ were appalling, and large numbers of prisoners died as a result.
Elizabeth Fry
- In 1813, she paid a visit to the women’s section of Newgate Prison, and was horrified by what she saw.
- She returned in 1816, and persuaded the women (and the authorities) to begin a school for the prison children. In 1817, a matron was appointed to run the women’s section.
The Gaols Act, 1823
- In 1823, Peel got the Gaols Act passed - this consolidated several earlier acts. It dealt with 130 prisons in all, in London, the large towns and the counties.
- In 1835, five Inspectors were appointed, but these only had limited powers.
- Between 1842 and 1877, 90 new prisons were built, including Pentonville (1842) which was to house 500 prisoners.
- They had large cells and wash basins, toilets and hammocks - much of this was inspired by the ideas of Joshua Jebb, the Surveyor-General of Prisons.
The Separate System and the Silent System
- The Separate System was based on almost total solitary confinement. This had a dreadful effect on prisoners - in its first eight years at Pentonville, 22 prisoners went mad, 26 had serious nervous breakdowns and three committed suicide.
- The Silent System was cheaper than the Separate System, and was the basis for the Prisons Act of 1865.
- It was still based on almost complete solitary confinement, but only for the first nine months.
- The main parts of the Silent System were ‘hard labour, hard fare and a hard board’.
- This Act of 1865 closed 80 of the smaller prisons. This left 113 prisons - but these were still under local control.
- Not until the 1877 Prisons Act did all prisons come under the Home Office.
10. Young people and crime
- Complaints against the activities of ‘street boys’ were common; such children were often the focus of police patrols.
- Many people in the nineteenth century believed that there were too many attractions of the wrong sort in industrial cities.
- The problem of children living on the streets was particularly notorious in London, most of the other large industrial towns had similar problems.
- In many cases, such children had little option but to turn to one form of crime or another.
- After the 1870 Education Act, which made education of children under 10 compulsory for the first time, juvenile crime was reduced as so many children were now in schools, rather than out on the streets al the time.
How were young people punished?
- In the late eighteenth century, 90% of all criminals hanged were under 21 - and some were as young as 10, though first-time offenders were sometimes let off.
- Young people were also transported. In the early nineteenth century, children were usually imprisoned for some offences along with adults.
- Some children were also imprisoned on the hulks (prison ships).
- Pankhurst Prison was the first serious attempt, in 1838, to provide a separate establishment for boys. Initially, the treatment of the boys was very strict and included leg irons and a restricted diet.
- By 1880, there were 6500 children under 16 in adult prisons, of whom 900 were under 12.
- Reformers such as Mary Carpenter, began to think about how deprived and/ or criminal backgrounds tended to produce criminal children.
- In 1854, Reformatory Schools were set up and, in 1899, children were no longer sent to prisons with adults. Instead, they went to special reformatory prisons called Borstals - the first one was in the Kent village of Borstal.
11. Women and the law
- According to modern research, women had made up 45% of those taken to the Old Bailey for alleged offences in the seventeenth century.
- This percentage dropped in the nineteenth century and, by the twentieth century, had fallen to 12%.
- From 1803, the penalties for abortion were increased and, in 1861, the woman seeking an abortion was punished as a criminal, as well as the person carrying out the abortion.
- One of the most harshly judged female ‘crimes’ was prostitution. Very few reformers were prepared to campaign on behalf of such women. One notable exception was Josephine Butler, who worked hard to get them fair treatment in prisons.
- A Select Committee was set up which reported in 1882 that agents provided girls for £12 a head to brothels in Belgium, where they were kept as virtual prisoners.
- The journalist W. T. Stead who in 1885 pointed out how rich men demanded, and exploited, an endless succession of young girls - often brought into London from rural areas such as Norfolk.
MODERN BRITAIN. 1900 to the present day
1. Poverty, prosperity and crime statistics
- From 1900 - in fact, from the late nineteenth century - to 1914, there was a general increase in prosperity in Britain, though not necessarily for all sections of society
- The late 1920s and the 1930s were marked by the Great Depression, with almost 25% of adult workers in Britain being unemployed.
- After the Second World War, the Welfare State was developed.
- From the late 1950s, the living standards of most people rose considerably, with almost full employment.
- But high unemployment reappeared from the late 1970s, and by the mid-1990s, millions were still unemployed.
- Many of the new jobs created during and after this period were often low-paid and part-time. As a consequence, wider gaps began to reappear between the poorest and the richest sections of society.
Crime and statistics
- From the mid-nineteenth century to 1900, recorded crime had fallen by 43%.
- From 1900, statistics show this lower level of crime remained fairly static or even fell slightly.
- During the 1930s and the Great Depression there was a very slight rise again.
- During the Depression, many people were extremely poor, especially after benefits were means tested. Yet, though there was a slight increase in crime during it, much of this was due to increased motoring offences.
- In the hard-hit areas, there was no really significant increase in crime. This was mainly because those hit by unemployment hardest were middle-aged semi-skilled or skilled workers.
- Statistics suggest that as living standards improved during the 1950s and 1960s, crime also dramatically increased.
- By the 1990s, there were 20 times the number of reported crimes than there had been for the 1950s.
- As in the past, 90% of the crimes were crimes against property - though crimes against the person also increased greatly.
- Most of those who committed crime were young men - 65% of crimes were committed by males under 25 and 50% by those under 20.
The ‘dark figure’ of crime
- In the twentieth century, crime victimisation studies have tried to establish true crime rates.
- In 1981, it was discovered that there were three times more thefts and twelve times more cases of vandalism than were reported to the police.
- This seems to suggest that the true crime rate is therefore much higher than the official statistics suggest.
Has crime increased?
No
- people may be more prepared to report even minor thefts , in order to receive insurance payouts on stolen goods.
- it is easier now to report a crime.
- people are now more prepared to report such crimes as rape, child abuse or wife-beating.
- the police tend to record more crime than they used to in the past - computers and performance targets have assisted this. I
Yes
- some people don’t report crimes because they distrust the police, fear retaliation or think it isn’t worth reporting petty theft or vandalism - or even rape or racial violence.
- the police do not record everything which is reported to them.
- a whole area of crime - white collar crime - committed by businessmen, employers and employees tends to be under-reported.
2. From theft to terrorism
- In addition to the types of theft common in previous periods, some newer ones - e.g. burglary and shoplifting - have emerged or became more common.
- Another ‘old’ crime which has also increased is smuggling - as transport has improved and travel increased.
- Violence against people has also increased - both inside and outside the home.
- Homicide (murder and manslaughter) continues to be crimes that fascinate many people. Many acts of homicide tend to occur while another crime - such as a bank robbery - is being committed.
- The number of murders in Britain has slowly increased since 1900; this was a trend which began before hanging was abolished in 1965.
- Most murder victims are killed by members of their own family, or by a friend or acquaintance - very few fall victim to a madman or a serial killer.
- Another crime of violence which has increased is terrorism.
- Before 1900, violence was often the only way to persuade those who ruled to change the laws, as there was little or no democracy or freedom for most people.
- The groups who use terrorism include the IRA who believe British rule of Northern Ireland should be ended, and groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, protesting against experiments on animals.
3. New technologies, new crimes
- The two most important changes are connected to the car and the computer:
- The two main types of car crime are motoring offences - such as speeding, drunk driving, and licence and insurance offences and theft - either of the car (for profit or joy-riding), or of goods from the car.
- The increasing use of computers has also led to a great variety of new crimes - several of which, though, are simply modern versions of old types of crime.
- The main types of computer crime are stealing computers, using computers to steal money from other people’s bank accounts, industrial or commercial espionage, sabotage and destroying or ‘hiding’ information
- In 2001, the government set up the National High-Tech Crime Squad to enable the police to concentrate more on such crimes.
4. Rioters and protesters
- Despite improving conditions and increased democracy, the twentieth century also saw mass public disorder and protest, often against specific laws, policies or situations.
- In the 1930s, though, there were many violent clashes resulting from political differences.
- In the period before 1980, several urban riots took place -some were attacks by racist groups against recent immigrants, or between members of different religious communities.
- In the first decades after 1900, though, governments were still often prepared to consider the use of troops, rather than just rely on the police to maintain public order.
- Protests in the twentieth century can be divided into three main types: political, industrial and those arising from general frustrations.
Protests since 1945
- Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in the 1960s
- Fascism and anti-Fascism, 1960-90, these were connected with the re-emergence of fascism with the National Front (in the 1960s and 1970s) and then the British National Party (in the 1980s and 1990s).
- CND and anti-Nuclear protests, 1950 -1990: these were by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
- ‘New Age’ protests of the 1980s and 1990s: most recently, political protest has moved on to campaigns about animal rights, the environment, the building of new roads and airports and the effects of globalisation and capitalism.
- Industrial protests, the two most important protests have been a series of industrial disputes in the 1970s, against the Industrial Relations Act of 1971, and the Miners’ Strike of 1984-5.
- Riots resulting from frustrations: there were various inner-city riots in the 1970s and 1980s. Most - though not all - of those involved were young black people protesting against what the minority ethnic communities saw as police victimisation and racism.
- The Poll Tax Protests, 1990-1992
5. Conscientious objectors
The First World War
- During the First World War, conscientious objectors - sometimes referred to as ‘conchies’ or ‘COs’ - were a group of protesters who aroused particular resentment and hostility.
- At first, the army had relied on volunteers but, as the war dragged on and casualties rose, conscription (compulsory call-up) was introduced in 1916.
- Military tribunals (special ‘courts’) were set up to decide which people could be excused military service.
- About 16,000 men refused to fight in the war for reasons of conscience. Most conscientious objectors refused on religious grounds.
- Of those who refused to take part in the war, most agreed to do other non-combatant war work.
- About 1500 refused to do anything to assist the war effort. These ‘absolutists’ were sent to prison where they received very harsh and often brutal treatment from the prison warders.
- At the end of the war, all COs were denied the right to vote for five years, and many found it impossible to get jobs; some were beaten up when they returned home.
The Second World War
- There were many more COs during the Second World War, mainly because when the full details of the tremendous slaughter in the trenches was revealed, many people became pacifists after 1918.
- About 29 000 did work in factories or on the land. Some COs agreed to do non-combatant work in the armed forces - very often acting as ambulance drivers or doing other medical work.
- Many COs, though, were part of the Peace Pledge Union which was opposed to war and which tried to encourage people not to fight.
8. Changes in policing
- Between 1964 and 1974, it was decided to reduce the total number of forces by amalgamation. Today, there are only 41 police forces.
- This change was achieved by the Police Act of 1964 and the Local Government Act of 1974.
- At the same time, in 1964, some counties were loosely grouped together in Regional Crime Squads, to improve co-operation between the police forces of adjoining counties.
- The establishment of the National Reporting Centre, and the co-ordination which took place during the 1984-5 miner’s strike, alarmed many into thinking that a national police force was not far away.
- The police have set up several smaller, specialist groups to deal with particular problems. In the main, it has been the Metropolitan Police Force which has led the way.
- 1901 - Scotland Yard Fingerprints Branch
- 1919 - the Flying Squad, set up by Scotland Yard; now known as the Central Robbery Squad.
- 1946 - the Fraud Squad
- 1965 - the Special Patrol Group; it was replaced by the Metropolitan Patrol Group in 1987.
- 1971 - Anti-Terrorist ( or Bomb) Squad
- 1972-3 - the National Drugs Intelligence Unit; the National Immigration Intelligence Unit; and the Murder Squad.
Scotland Yard also set the pace in the use of new equipment.
- the telegraph and then the telephone
- finger-printing; further improved by the use of DNA ‘printing’
- the National Computer Record
- security cameras
- radios in cars and police telephone boxes; then personal radios for policemen on the beat
- a more modern type of truncheon
- C. S. gas canisters, dart guns, rubber bullets, electrified water jets and water cannons
- new riot gear (which makes the police look very similar to the army)
Police powers
- In the main basic police powers in practice have not increased greatly over those which existed in 1900.
- The Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984 did make legal some of the methods which the police had been using unofficially.
- Other people have been concerned by the new powers given to police by the Public Order Act of 1986, and there has been growing concern over the way some demonstrations are policed.
Public attitudes
- Some people have become increasingly concerned about the discovery of police corruption and abuses of power.
- The Police Complaints Authority was set up in 1985 to deal with complaints by the public against police actions.
9. Changing attitudes to punishment
- In the period 1900-50, when crime was falling, attitudes towards criminals and their punishment began to change. more people were given shorter sentences, or were put on probation or, from 1914, given longer to pay fines.
- As a result, the number of people in prison in Britain in the period 1900-30 fell by almost a half - and about 80% of these were serving short sentences or were first-time offenders.
- However, from 1945, the number of prisoners began to rise once more. This was especially true after the late 1970s, when many people began to believe that Britain was experiencing a crime wave.
Prison reform since 1900
Since 1900, the main reforms have been
- 1902 - the treadmill and the crank were abolished.
- 1907 - the Probation Service began.
- 1914 - offenders were given time to pay a fine.
- 1922 - solitary confinement was abolished.
- 1936 - the first ‘open’ prison was set up in Wakefield.
- 1948 - flogging and hard labour were abolished
- 1962 - birching was abolished.
- 1967 - suspended sentences were introduced.
- 1972 - Community Service Orders were introduced.
- Once, sentences of 10 years were rare; now, those of 15, 20 or even more are less unusual for the more serious crimes such as armed robbery or arson.
- There has been an increase in the proportion of offenders sent to prison for certain crimes.
- There has been a large increase in those remanded into custody while waiting for their trial - some people spent as much as a year on remand.
- Many people have also begun to argue that prison has become too ‘soft’.
- The introduction of private companies into the running of prisons was at least in part based on the assumption that companies run for profit would be less likely to be influenced by liberal and reforming ideas.
- The average number of prisoners in 1900 was nearly 18 000.
- This fell to 11 000 in 1925, in large part as a result of the reforms brought in the period 1900 -14.
- It has steadily risen since the Second World War - in 1950, there were 20 000. There were over 50 000 by 1988 and 60 000 by 1997.
- Prisons then only had room for 40 000 prisoners. The UK now has almost the highest prison population per 100 000 of the population in the whole of Europe.
- In 1982, the Criminal Justice Act replaced Borstals with Youth Custody.
- Plans by the Conservative government to set up special ‘Boot’ camps, where young offenders would be given a ‘short, sharp shock’ were quietly abandoned when a report showed that after five years, there had been no noticeable effect on reconviction rates.
The impact on prisons
- The continually increasing prison population has led to serious over-crowding,
- There has also been an increase in the number of terrorists and sex-offenders in prison - making prisons much more difficult to manage.
- The result has been an increasing number of prison riots; some have been especially serious e.g. in 1989, in Wandsworth, London and in 1990 in Strangeways, Manchester.
- In 1997, the first new prison ship was placed in Portsmouth harbour - many saw this as a return to the ‘hulks’ system of the nineteenth century.
- The authorities have also examined ways of reducing the prison population, some of which were considered before 1900. These include parole and suspended sentences, introduced in 1967, Community Service, introduced in 1972, Day training/ Probation day centres, set up by the Criminal Justice Act, 1982 and electronic monitoring - tagging.
10. The death penalty and the case of Derek Bentley
- Capital punishment - the death penalty - had been seen and used as the ultimate punishment and deterrent.
- By the mid-1700s, some people began to question its usefulness as a method of controlling crime and criminals.
- The ‘Bloody Code’ was gradually reformed and, by the late 1830s, hanging had been abolished for all offences except murder and treason.
- In 1868 hanging in public was ended.
- In 1870, the hanging, drawing and quartering of traitors was ended.
- There were several unsuccessful attempts to abolish hanging completely during the second half of the nineteenth century - in 1848, 1849, and again in 1850.
The death penalty since 1900
- In 1908, the minimum age for execution was raised to 16 and, in 1933, to 18.
- In 1922, an act abolished the death penalty for a mother killing a baby under the age of one.
- Serious crime did not greatly increase after 1950 but the number of executions did. From 1945-55, 151 people were hanged.
- In 1957, the Homicide Act divided murders into two categories - capital and non-capital, and abolished hanging for most murders.
- Hangings in Britain dropped to an average of four a year.
- MPs in 1965 voted in favour of the Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act.
Why was the death penalty abolished?
- Many were particularly concerned that, if a mistake was made (regarding evidence, for instance), it was impossible to put things right. Particularly important were the cases of Timothy Evans (hanged in 1950) and Ruth Ellis (hanged in 1955).
- But one of the most important cases leading to the abolition of the death penalty was that of Derek Bentley who was executed in 1953 for a crime he did not commit.
- His family and supporters began a campaign to have the guilty verdict overturned by the courts.
- This campaign lasted 46 years, and was led by his sister, Iris. In July 1998, Lord Chief Justice Bingham quashed the guilty verdict.
- Some newspapers began to comment on how the whole system of reprieves by the Home Secretary had become a ‘lottery’.
- Some criminals were given prison sentences of 10 to 15 years, while others who had committed the same offence, were hanged.
- Executions upset both staff and prisoners, especially those who formed the ‘death watch’, and often made prisons more difficult to run for some time afterwards.
- In the 1950s and 1960s, prison governors and officers were less likely to come into the profession from the military, so there was less emphasis on the importance of harsh punishment and discipline, and more on rehabilitation.
Developments since 1969
- Many people remain in favour of the restoration of death penalty. According to opinion polls, somewhere between 70 -80% of the general public usually favours it.
- Yet, despite over 13 free votes in the House of Commons from 1969 onwards the vast majority of MPs have continued to oppose any change to the 1965 Act.
- Britain is now one of 69 countries that have totally abolished the death penalty.
- What has replaced the death penalty?
- The punishment for murder since 1965 had been life imprisonment - with a minimum sentence specified by the judge, and nearly always agreed by the Home Secretary.
- The most serious murders - e.g. of children, police or prison officers, or those committed by terrorists - tend to have to serve at least 20 years, if not more.
- There are over 2000 ‘lifers’ - most will serve at least 10 to 20 years, but a few will never come out.
11. Young people and juvenile crime
- Certain crimes - whether against property or person - have become particularly associated with young people, especially young males. Such types of juvenile crime include, joy-riding, shoplifting and vandalism.
- In the 1950s, there were the Teddy Boys, or Teds; in the 1960s, the main groups were Mods and Rockers; in the late 1960s and early 1970s, were the Skinheads.
- From 1957 onwards, football violence increased sharply; during the 1970s and 1980s, skinheads and others involved with racist and fascist groups were the main offenders.
- Abuse of intoxicating substances - whether by old or young - is not a new phenomenon.
Causes of juvenile crime
- Because of the increase in the rate of divorce and single-parent families; the problem of psychological, physical or sexual abuse by a small minority of parents; and greater geographic mobility.
- The growing gap between rich and poor which emerged in the 1980s, and which continued during the 1990s, as being, at least in part, linked to poverty and high unemployment.
- Most crime is committed in urban areas where poverty and unemployment tend to be highest. Such deprived sections of the population have been described as forming a distinct and large underclass.
- Some experts blame not poverty as much as the frustration caused by living in the large blocks of flats which often have no recreational facilities at all.
- Very often, such housing areas are in pockets of poverty, and many such children truant from school, leading to poor, inadequate education and hence a vicious circle of poverty, low qualifications, unemployment and crime of one sort or another.
- TV and videos are seen by many as having influenced impressionable young people to imitate what they see on the screen.
Punishment of young offenders
- Some people blame the punishment system for the increase in young offenders. They see it as failing to adequately punish young people because they claim it is too slow and too soft on juvenile offenders.
- In the early nineteenth century, juveniles were punished as if they were adults - the punishments included hanging, as well as imprisonment or transportation.
- In 1908, an ‘age of criminal responsibility’ (when the law says someone is responsible for their criminal actions) was established for the first time.
- It was set at seven; this rose to eight in 1933, to ten in 1963 and to 14 in 1969. In 1948, Detention Centres were set up, and in 1969, juvenile courts, supervision and care orders were introduced.
- In 1983, Detention Centres and a system of youth custody replaced Borstals and prison for all those under 21.
- In 1998, in an attempt to reduce juvenile crime, youth offending teams were set up. Among other things, it tries to speed up court cases, and makes young offenders meet their victims and give some kind of compensation.
